Preface to “Utopia & Knowledge”

ERC President Jean-Pierre Bourguignon's preface to the booklet “Utopia and Knowledge”, at the initiative of Minister Manuel Heitor summing up the Portuguese EU Presidency, gathering input for the debate on the Future of Europe  We are living in very special times. On the one hand, the pandemic has struck the whole world at an unprecedented speed, requiring that political leaders take rapid and sometimes unpopular decisions. Those decisions had to be informed by scientists providing the political echelon with key facts on the situation and the possible consequences of the steps to be taken. On the other hand, several challenges, that have been with us for quite some time, such as climate change, digital transition and growing inequalities, have generated an even more pressing demand for sustained actions. These challenges too can only be addressed through close international collaborations between scientists and policy makers that share data and identify critical paths to follow, several of them directly impacting the society at large. This can only be achieved by “taking the long view”. This combination of pressing short-term actions and necessary long-term commitments, including a thorough monitoring of their implementation, is a major challenge to democracies where, too often, confronting the power in place comes with the claim that it has done everything wrong. The need to establish broadly accepted facts-based goals requires in-depth discussions and informed exchanges in...